Sustainable Heating Solutions

Solar thermal

Solar panels are now a common sight on roofs all over the country. There are many manufacturers offering a variety of different products, but essentially they fall into two groups – ‘traditional’ flat solar panels and evacuated tubes.

Solar panels are ideal for south facing locations and can be installed in or on a roof, or in another suitable location. However for maximum solar gain evacuated tubes are more efficient as they collect sunlight from a wider angle, and they also provide greater winter solar gain than panels.

Panels and evacuated tubes will both provide a useable solar output even on overcast days when used in conjunction with an appropriately designed buffer tank.

Panels are more widely recognised – and may be your only option if you live in an area with sensitive aesthetics. Recent developments in solar panels have led to the production of a solar ‘tile’ with which you cover your roof (instead of traditional tiles or slates). This minimises the appearance of the system, and can be useful for conservation areas and listed buildings.

Evacuated tubes offer a step-up from panels in terms of efficiency, but are much more visible. As mentioned above, they will operate in less ‘ideal’ settings than panels as they are able to collect the sun’s heat from a much wider angle than panels. They also operate better during winter months when there are less hours of daylight available for them to harvest.

Solar heating should always be considered as a ‘top-up’ for other heat sources. Good quality units, installed to manufacturers recommendations and connected to a well-designed storage tank should be able to contribute upwards of 30% of a property’s annual hot water requirements. We can supply storage tanks which will also enable solar panels to contribute to the operation of an underfloor heating system – please contact us for details.

To learn more about solar thermal, please go to the solar thermal page in our Sustainable heating technologies explained section.